A worldwide study of subcortical shape as a marker for clinical staging in Parkinson’s disease

Max A. Laansma*, Yuji Zhao, Eva M. van Heese, Joanna K. Bright, Conor Owens-Walton, Sarah Al-Bachari, Tim J. Anderson, Francesca Assogna, Tim D. van Balkom, Henk W. Berendse, Fernando Cendes, John C. Dalrymple-Alford, Ines Debove, Michiel F. Dirkx, Jason Druzgal, Hedley C.A. Emsley, Jean Paul Fouche, Gaëtan Garraux, Rachel P. Guimarães, Rick C. HelmichMichele Hu, Odile A. van den Heuvel, Dmitry Isaev, Ho Bin Kim, Johannes C. Klein, Christine Lochner, Corey T. McMillan, Tracy R. Melzer, Benjamin Newman, Laura M. Parkes, Clelia Pellicano, Fabrizio Piras, Toni L. Pitcher, Kathleen L. Poston, Mario Rango, Leticia F. Ribeiro, Cristiane S. Rocha, Christian Rummel, Lucas S.R. Santos, Reinhold Schmidt, Petra Schwingenschuh, Letizia Squarcina, Dan J. Stein, Daniela Vecchio, Chris Vriend, Jiunjie Wang, Daniel Weintraub, Roland Wiest, Clarissa L. Yasuda, Neda Jahanshad, Paul M. Thompson, Ysbrand D. van der Werf, Boris A. Gutman

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal Article peer-review

Abstract

Alterations in subcortical brain regions are linked to motor and non-motor symptoms in Parkinson’s disease (PD). However, associations between clinical expression and regional morphological abnormalities of the basal ganglia, thalamus, amygdala and hippocampus are not well established. We analyzed 3D T1-weighted brain MRI and clinical data from 2525 individuals with PD and 1326 controls from 22 global sources in the ENIGMA-PD consortium. We investigated disease effects using mass univariate and multivariate models on the medial thickness of 27,120 vertices of seven bilateral subcortical structures. Shape differences were observed across all Hoehn and Yahr (HY) stages, as well as correlations with motor and cognitive symptoms. Notably, we observed incrementally thinner putamen from HY1, caudate nucleus and amygdala from HY2, hippocampus, nucleus accumbens, and thalamus from HY3, and globus pallidus from HY4–5. Subregions of the thalami were thicker in HY1 and HY2. Largely congruent patterns were associated with a longer time since diagnosis and worse motor symptoms and cognitive performance. Multivariate regression revealed patterns predictive of disease stage. These cross-sectional findings provide new insights into PD subcortical degeneration by demonstrating patterns of disease stage-specific morphology, largely consistent with ongoing degeneration.

Original languageEnglish
Article number223
Pages (from-to)223
Journalnpj Parkinson's Disease
Volume10
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 19 11 2024

Bibliographical note

© 2024. The Author(s).

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